Screenwriter David Mamet on the Hollywood Impact of Being a Conservative

You may know him as the Oscar-nominated 'Wag the Dog' screenplay writer, among a slew of other A-list productions. Wednesday morning, David Mamet spoke with Gretchen Carlson about "coming out" as a conservative in the Left-leaning Tinseltown.

When asked what changed his mind on liberal vs. conservative policies, Mamet said it all boiled down to numbers. "I started looking at my checkbook, and I learned a little bit of mathematics ... I realized there's only so much money that a business has, that a family has, that a government has. And if you spend it on thing A, you can't spend it on thing B."

Mamet hasn't been impervious to the impact of his politics on work opportunities. In Hollywood, Mamet says there is what he calls a "herd mentality."

"It's a liberal town," Mamet said, "and the essence of liberalism as I understand it, in its aspect of being a religion, is that you have to protect the lie."

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[SarahLeeAnn]

There are liberals who are fiscally conservative and understand economics, come on. Why the hell does everything have to be so polarized? You can be an open person and manage money quite well. Come of it guys.

[7kurisu]

i personally dont care what this guy's politics are. if he writes well, thats all that matters. there has to be balance for a democracy to exist. however, i suspect its a fiction that hollywood is a festering liberal cancer - their problems lie more in the quantity vs quality dept. btw, what is the chequebook balance from thing A to thing B? not very well articulated argument mr mamet.

[MrMichaelblake]

@cano21 Matthews is almost as bad as Fox.

[cano21]

@MrMichaelblake Well, if you say so Chris Matthews.

[MrMichaelblake]

Fox News is the most irresponsible business America has ever produced.

[dantean]

More interesting than "why he became a conservative" is the question "why does he think anyone needs to hear him speak on ANY subject whatsoever?" Write a play, dude, THAT'S WHAT YOU DO. I don't want to hear you sing, don't want to see you dance, don't want to have to smell it anytime you feel you decide that when David Mamet farts it is somehow more worthy of notice than when the guy standing next to you in the bus stop cuts one. P.U.!

[FungusMossGnosis]

@Averyofthemain >"...poor pinko..."<

Did you just fall out of a time machine straight out of Senator McCarthy's ass? I suggest you find your way back and crawl back up there.

You'll be safe from the armies of feminazis, or whatever other fantasies you've concocted that are rotting your brain.

[Averyofthemain]

@skedaddleMLS Gee, tom selleck, jon voight, frank capra, jimmy stewart, bob hope, cecil b demille--all conservatives, all better than your favorites.

[Averyofthemain]

@FungusMossGnosis Poor, poor pinko. You lost one of your zombies to life and logic, like anyone who craves after human flesh, you gnash your demonic teeth when one sees his error and embraces the truth.

[FungusMossGnosis]

That's not David Mamet. That's the pod they put in his room in the middle of the last decade.

The real Mamet is long gone.

So profoundly sad.

Similar to when Salvador Dali renounced art for creativity's sake and went in strictly for the profit and began admiring Franco fascism.

Another casualty of Religious fanaticism and political narcissism.

F---ing drone.